RapidStart Leadership Podcast: Recent Episodes

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When it comes to getting things done, culture can have a huge impact not only on how well the team performs, but how likely it is that our teammates will stick around to do it again. So, what do we do when we sense that our team’s culture is heading straight for the edge of a cliff? Here are eleven ideas for how we can make a culture course correction with our teams.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Culture Course Correction: 11 Ways to Avoid Going Over the Cliff
• Here’s a link to Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
• Take a quick leadership “I” test for a sense of how you may be inadvertently sabotaging your team’s culture: The Leadership Eye Test: A Simple Checkup for Your Team’s Health
• Culture is shaped very powerfully by what we do when things go wrong. Here are two inspiring stories about leaders who got it right: How to Build Culture One Test at a Time
• For more ideas about how to strengthen your team culture through ritual, consider: Team Rituals: 35 Pretty Good Ideas to Strengthen Your Culture

Quotable:

“Water the plans you want to grow.”- Stephen Covey

“A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude.”- Daniel Pink

“It’s hard to build a team if you make teammates fight for the same resources.”- Ken Downer

Related posts:

How to Build Team Culture One Test at a Time

Micromanagement: 7 Signs You’re a Micromanager and What to Do About It

How to Build Team Culture One Test at a Time

Stay connected with Rapidstart Leadership

• Visit the site athttps://www.rapidstartleadership.com/
• Tweet us at @RapidStartLdr
• Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rapidstartleadership
• Subscribe to the Leadership Updates Newsletter
• Email us at Ken@RapidStartLeadership.com

Thanks for listening, and Lead On!

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If we hope to develop high-performing teams, increasing engagement is always at the top of our to-do list. But sometimes in our efforts to lead, we can get in our own way, and hinder the very thing we are trying to encourage. Two brief interactions that went very differently illustrate how this can happen, and what we can do if we are serious about increasing engagement on our teams.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Increasing Engagement – How to Get People to Open Up
• Find out more about Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends & Influence People or get the book here: Win Friends
• Here’s a link to a free copy of Dr. Gordon’s study: The Difference Between Feeling Defensive and Feeling Understood.

Quotable:

“When people feel defensive, they want to strikeout; when they feel understood, they want to reachout. When people feel defensive, they want to do something to the other person; when they feel understood, they want to do something for the other person.”- Dr. Ronal Gordon

“I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiment of others.- Benjamin Franklin

“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”- Lord Chesterfield, to his son

Related posts:

Culture Course Correction: 11 Ways to Avoid Going over the Cliff

Courage to Lead: Re-looking the Role of Courage in Leadership

Bad vs. Good: Why Does the Bad Seem to Outweigh the Good?

Stay connected with Rapidstart Leadership

• Visit the site athttps://www.rapidstartleadership.com/
• Tweet us at @RapidStartLdr
• Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rapidstartleadership
• Subscribe to the Leadership Updates Newsletter
• Email us at Ken@RapidStartLeadership.com

Thanks for listening, and Lead On!

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Most people know that a marathon is 26.2 miles long. Successful runners also know that it’s a mistake to focus solely on that distance. Smart leaders can benefit from similar thinking. Whatever marathon we are running with our teams, to get to that distant goal, it’s not the finish line we should focus on, it’s the 18th mile. Here’s why.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post:The 18th Mile: It’s Not the Finish Line Leaders Should Focus On
• When it comes to clearly defining the problem we are trying to solve, this post can help, and demonstrates why it’s so important to invest the time to do this part right: What’s the Problem: Problem-Solving Lessons-Learned from Moneyball.
• Team culture is critically important in helping us make it through the 18th mile. Here’s more on how to build one that will go the distance: How to Build Team Culture From the Ground Up
• The study of fund raisers is described in this paper prepared by Ashley V. Whillans from the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia
• My post Beat the Hamster Wheel – 5 Ways to Keep Going When You’d Rather Not has several ways to help you and your team persevere.

Quotable:

“Expecting and preparing for things to become difficult is the first step to overcoming them.”- Ken Downer

“The presence of an obstacle doesn’t necessarily mean we’re on the wrong path, just that we need to be more creative and resourceful to continue forward.”- Ken Downer

“The true team players emerge at the 18th mile. Pay attention to who they are, value them, encourage them, support them; they are not always who we thought they were.”- Ken Downer

Related posts:
How Serving Can Make You a Better Leader
Type 2 Fun: The Secret to Achieving Your Goals
Spotlight the Support

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On a recent sub-zero day on a frozen lake in central Minnesota, I got a chance to witness great team leadership in action. It was a crash course in what leading winning teams is all about. Here’s what the experience was like, and five key lessons from the leaders themselves that we can all use in leading our own teams.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post:Leading Winning Teams: 5 Leadership Lessons from Mushers
• A great article posted on LinkedIn by Aaron Phillips goes even farther into detail with his conversations with several of the mushers featured in this podcast.
• If you are interested in a deeper dive into the interface between mushing and leadership, an hour well-spent would be with the Always in Pursuit podcast interview with 5x Iditarod champion musher Dallas Seavey, hosted by Mike Burke, an exceptional leader in his own right.

Quotable:

“I have to figure out how to make each dog reach its best potential.”- Libby Riddles, first woman to win the Iditarod

“They’re a great team because I eat beans and rice and they eat steak and eggs.
- Iditarod musher Lance Mackay

“Good leaders do not secure their position by making others less confident.
- Caroline Blair-Smith, Musher

“It is not what the challenge is, it’s how the team handles the challenge.”- Dallas Seavey, 5-Time Iditarod Champion

“My job is to make sure these dogs succeed. The race portion will take care of itself.”- Dallas SeaveyRelated posts:

How to Respond to Crisis: Four Steps for Leaders

Positive Feedback – Catch them Doing Something Right

Rapid Deliberation: 7 Ways to Hit the Target While Under Stress

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When we’re trying to influence people to choose an option we favor, we can be tempted to only talk about the reasons why they should. But according to something called the Blemishing Effect, it may actually be in our best interests to point out why they shouldn’t, too. Here’s why.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full postThe Blemishing Effect: Why Selling Perfection Can be Self-Defeating
• Dan Pink’s To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others is full of great insights about the ways we influence each other.
• The blemishing effect works best when people don’t want to invest a lot of energy into making a decision, and only when the negative “blemish” comes after all the positive information.

Related posts:

Influencing the Decision: How to Transition from Doer to Decider

Hyperbolic Discounting and 7 Ways to Prevent Self-Sabotage

How to Build Influence: Go From Gofer to Go-To with These 3 Simple Steps

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One of the many challenges we face as leaders is where to spend our time and energy. Recently I came across an insightful analogy that can help us approach this problem. It has to do with having a kind of leadership double-vision.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full pos tDo You Have Leadership Double-Vision? Should You?
• The Essential Wooden by John Wooden and Steve Jamison is a great read full of insightful, practical leadership wisdom.
• Another great leadership read isWooden on Leadership – more practical leadership wisdom woven into longer form stories about Wooden’s challenges and successes as a coach and leader.
• For more about the hazards of micromanaging, check out 7 Signs You’re a Micromanager and What to Do About It

Quotable:

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.” - Stephen Covey

“If we are to devote time to any task, no matter how mundane, we should make sure that time is well-invested.” - Ken Downer

“Wooden’s focus on the details of every practice brought his team to the point that when the big games came around, he did not worry about the outcome. He allowed the score to take care of itself. - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Book Notes – Wooden on Leadership: Think Small

The Leadership Eye Test: A Simple Checkup for Your Team’s Health

Visionary Leadership: When Social Proof Fails

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How do we convince ourselves to do something we’d rather not?

It’s cold and raining outside, but I’m supposed to go for a training run today. I really don’t want to. To get myself out the door, here are the kinds of things that go through my head, and ways we can all think about approaching any difficult task that we’d really rather not do.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full pos tRunning in the Rain: What to Think About When You Think About Quitting
• Type 1 fun is an activity that is fun in the moment, like a rollercoaster ride; Type 2 fun is more fun when looking back on it, like a tough workout. It’s “fun when it’s done.”
• For more ideas on how to set and achieve your goals, check out my Goal Mastery Course; the first several lessons are free.

Quotable:

“Our will is a kind of muscle, and it’s times like these when we can either train it to grow stronger, or allow it to atrophy.” - Ken Downer

“When it comes to willpower, winning today’s battle will make it easier to win the one tomorrow.” - Ken Downer

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only poor clothing choices.” - Outdoorsman’s adage

“The first step to growth is accepting discomfort.” - Ken Downer

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Related posts:

Beat the Hamster Wheel: 5 Ways to Keep Going When You’d Rather Not

Type 2 Fun: The Secret to Achieving Your Goals

Where Did Everybody Go? 23 Ways to Stick With Your Goals

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As ever, with the approach of the New Year, there is talk of reflection. Extracting the lessons-learned from the past year and using them as we look forward is a great path to continued growth. But few are the people who will actually sit down and do it. One reason may be that there is no owner’s manual to guide the process. With that in mind, here are some ideas for how to go about reflecting on the year gone by so that the year ahead is as good as we can make it.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full postReflecting Back on the Year Ahead – 11 Ways to Make Your Reflection Session Pay Off
• Why use pen and paper? It gets us away from the screen, it triggers a different way of thinking, and it results in a tangible, concrete artifact we are more likely to remember.
• Here are the domains for reflecting that Donald Latumahina suggests, along with some questions in each we can ask ourselves:

• Material

  • Have we been able to reduce debt, add to savings, and spend wisely?
  • What is the next career step, and how are we progressing towards it?
  • Are we in control of our possessions, or are they in control of us?

  • Spiritual

  • Do we feel fulfilled? Why or why not?

  • Whatever our belief set, how well are we practicing its precepts?
  • What about meditation or reflective reading?
  • What would our obituary say if it only covered the past year – what reasons have we given others to say we were a good person?

  • Physical

  • What do we do to stay healthy?

  • How often do we exercise, and is that adequate?
  • How could we be more active even without a formal program?
  • Is the food we eat helping or hurting our efforts to reach fitness goals, or to lead a healthy life?
  • Do we get enough sleep?

  • Social

  • How would we rate the quality of our key relationships with spouse, family, and friends?

  • What could we do to improve them?
  • Have we made new friends in the past year?
  • How well did we stay connected to old ones?
  • Do all our friends look just like us, or could we stand to have a little more variety in interests, background, and culture?

Quotable:

“Explore thyself. Herin are demanded the eye and the nerve.” - Henry David Thoreau

“Often, it’s not the hail-Mary pass but the slow and steady plodding that lead to our eventual success..” - Ken Downer

“Maybe the best way to start the new year is by thanking the people who helped us get through the old one.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

6 Powerful Ways Leaders Reflect, and how Reflection Makes Your Team Great

The After Action Review: A Leader’s Guide

No Car, No Phone, No Clue: 10 Life Lessons from a Treasure Hunt

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What do jet engines and work teams have in common? If either generate too much heat, they will self-destruct. Aeronautical engineers found a surprising way to adapt their engines so they could handle more heat and operate at higher capacities. Today we’ll look at three ways to apply their approach to leadership, and boost our own team performance.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full postBoosting Team Performance: 3 Ways to Make Your Team’s Engine More Powerful
• Simon Winchester’s book The perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World is a fascinating look into man’s pursuit of the ultra-precise.
• My Book Notes on Jim Collins’ Good to Great looks at the leadership behind the truly great companies; these people are not at all what you might expect as leaders.

Quotable:

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” - Harvey S. Firestone

“Cool deliberation followed by determined action is the key to success in leadership.” - Ken Downer

“Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Related posts:

Rapid Deliberation: 7 Ways to Hit the Target While Under Stress

Delegation, Part 2: What to Delegate?

Who’s Your Second? Are We Really Leading, or Just in Charge?

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When telling people what we need done, how do we strike the balance between being overly prescriptive, and recklessly lax? How can we be sure what we want in the beginning will be what we get at the end? A story I read recently involving a frozen lake, a pack of wolves, and a canoe full of beer can serve as a helpful guide in helping us master the art of delegation.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post Delegate Better: Three Ways to Get the Results You Want
• This example of poor delegation comes from Farley Mowat’s book Never Cry Wolf. It is both very amusing, and an eye-opening look at how we can be blinded, often willfully, by our own prejudices. It was also made into a movie, but I don’t recommend it.
• For a deeper look into the possibility that we may have become micromanagers, check out Micromanagement: 7 Signs You’re a Micromanager and What to Do About It
• This post on Set and Forget Leadership in another take on delegation and how to avoid getting burned when handing off a task to someone else.

Quotable:

“Getting better at delegation means putting more energy into the start of the process.” - Ken Downer

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” - General George S. Patton

“Leaders strive to unlock the potential contained between other people’s ears.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

How To Delegate, Part 1: Why?

Delegation, Part 2: What to Delegate?

Delegation, Part 3: Who, How to Delegate?

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In times of high stress, we want fast answers. As leaders we feel the pressure be decisive. But fast is not always best, and can sometimes lead us deeper into trouble.

What we need is rapid deliberation. With a little help from Wyatt Earp, and people who jump out of airplanes for a living, here’s what I think that means, and how we can put it to work for us.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Rapid Deliberation: 7 Ways to Hit the Target While Under Stress
• In The Slow Fix Carl Honore digs even more deeply into how to be deliberately rapid.
• For more on what to do when crisis hits, check out: How to Respond to Crisis: Four Steps for Leaders
• Well-written The After Action Reviews are a great resource to help leaders anticipate potential problems and prepare for their likelihood.

Quotable:

“Fast is fine, but accuracy is final. You must learn to be slow in a hurry.” - Wyatt Earp

“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” - U.S. Army Jumpmaster adage

“’The action that follows deliberation should be quick, but deliberation should be slow.” - Aristotle

“Haste trips up its own heels.” - Michel de Montaigne

Related posts:

Team Leadership: 4 Simple Steps to Getting Stuff Done

Are you Contagious? 3 Ways to Manage your Emotional Message

11 Key Rehearsal Techniques to Keep Your Plan From Getting Torpedoed

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‘Set and forget’ leadership: Hand off the task as fast as possible, move on to other things. It’s what we tend to do when we’re in a hurry, but the biggest speed advantage this approach confers may be how quickly it can get us into trouble. Here’s a way to think about how to delegate that task we’ve cooked up so that things function smoothly in the kitchen, and nobody gets burned.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: ‘Set and Forget’ Leadership: How to Delegate So You Won’t Get Burned
• Like so many of his books, Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw is both and entertaining and informative look into the quirks of being human.
• Check out Delegate or Die and how to delegate for a deeper dive behind the idea of why we need to delegate, even if we can do the task best.
• For a detailed look at how to conduct an after-action review, read The After Action Review: A Leader’s Guide – it gives a blow-by-blow approach to what to do before, during, and after the big event so that each time you keep getting better.

Quotable:

“If it happened in our kitchen, our fingers are scorched; we have to own it.” - Ken Downer

“Micromanaging our teammates can erode trust and foster disengagement almost as fast as blame-shifting can.” - Ken Downer

“’Set and forget’ is now way to run a kitchen, not if we want to avoid sullen chefs and dissatisfied diners.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Micromanagement: 7 Signs You’re a Micromanager and What to Do About It

Getting Down in the Trenches: Tips for Taking Over

Mind the Gap: 9 Ways to Close the Trust Gap on Your Team

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Want to achieve your goals? Don’t listen to the marketers…

We are continually bombarded by messages that to cater to, and encourage, our short attention span. There is no shortage of “life hacks,” quick-fix remedies, and promises of miraculous overnight success. Like a blow from Thor’s mighty hammer, we’re led to expect quick resolution to our problems, and rapid attainment of our goals.

But something I saw recently reminded me that most of that is not helpful. When it comes to achieving your goals, there is a better approach you can employ. This may be best explained using an oddly shaped chunk of apple tree.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Big Hammer or Small Blade? What it Really Takes to Achieve Your Goals
• Here’s a short video of craftsman Matt Jordan turning a burled apple tree limb into a beautiful coffee mug.
• Here’s the slow motion video of what is really happening with every turn of the spindle, thanks to Bailey Woodworks.
• Here’s a short description of the Habit Cycle and how you can use it to help you stick to your plan.
• For more skills to help you achieve your goals, be sure to check out my Goal Setting Mastery Course to help you build the habits that will turn your future into the one you envision.

Quotable:

“Progress is not measured in a few giant swings of a hammer but in thousands of little chips from a blade.” - Ken Downer

“Focus small instead of big. Know that every tiny little bit matters, and all those little bits can add up to something amazing.” - Ken Downer

“Missing a day is like working with dull tools or a saw with missing teeth; it’s going to take longer and the outcome may not be as good; steady persistence is a multiplier.” - Ken Downer

“One great workout will not win a race. 30-40 good workouts strung together in close proximity is what wins races!” - Lionel Sanders, Professional Triathlete

Related posts:

How to Communicate the Vision: Striking the Right Chord

3 Ways to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough

Why I Resolve to do Nothing Next Year

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Not all leadership situations are the same. Sometimes the way ahead is clear to all, and leading is easy. But it’s when the storms roll in and the path is obscured that leaders earn their keep. These are the lighthouse leadership moments that matter the most. With the help of a story of amazing bravery, here’s what that means, and how to keep your team on course even on the darkest nights.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Lighthouse Leadership: How to Lead Your Team When the Storm Hits
• For more detail on this story, here’s a description of the wreck of the Madeira from the Minnesota Historical Society
• Bob Tiede’s great question is to ask, “How can we do this in a way that will guarantee failure?” Here’s about that from his web site, Leading With Questions

Quotable:

“Leaders talk about values to live by, and leaders live by the values they talk about.” - Ken Downer

“Lighthouse leadership shines brightest when it is darkest.” - Ken Downer

“Build the lighthouse before you need it.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Cornerstone of Leadership: What’s Yours?For more on how choose cornerstone values

How to Build Team Culture From the Ground Up

Positive Feedback – Catch them Doing Something Right

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What’s the best revenge against someone who has done us wrong? The answer might surprise you, but it has everything to do with what makes a leader.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: The Best Revenge: What to Do When Someone Does Us Wrong
• Here’s a short, fun video of matches going off in a chain reaction in the form of a volcano. Don’t try this at home!
• For more diversion, here’s a short video of a triple spiral of dominoes falling
• For a brief but interesting history of America’s most famous family grudge match, check out “The Hatfield & McCoy Feud” on History.com.

Quotable:

“When the answer to a wrong is another wrong, things don’t get better; often they only become worse.” - Ken Downer

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“A good leader is the match that keeps its cool, the domino that refuses to fall, the control rod in the reactor absorbing atomic fragments, not spewing them out.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Restoring Faith in Humanity One Act at a Time

Leaders Go First: The Surprising Impact of Making the First Move

Herd Mentality: What We Can Learn About Leadership From Ancient Americans

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Hyperbolic discounting may sound like a super-charged holiday sales technique, but in reality, it’s a phenomenon that leaves us vulnerable to making poor impulse choices and sabotaging our goals. Here’s what it is, and seven ways to turn this dangerous penchant into a tool to help us make smart decisions.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Hyperbolic Discounting and 7 Ways to Prevent Self-Sabotage
• For more of the fascinating research behind this concept see The Economics of Immediate Gratification by Ted O’Donoghue and Matthew Rabin
• Here’s reference to the 2016 study that demonstrated the “Priming” was an effective way to reduce cognitive bias.
• Here’s the link to my Goal-Setting Mastery Course that will help you not only set good goals, but stay on track long enough to attain them. The first several videos are free.

Quotable:

“Naughty goods are sold in small packages.” - Marketing dictum

“We are tempted to over-value options that that put things in our hands in the near-term, even though we know we’ll end up paying a greater cost down the road.” - Ken Downer

“Since we know that our future selves are smarter about these kinds of things, we can imagine the person we want to be five years from now, and get their thoughts on what choice to make today.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Type 2 Fun: The Secret to Achieving Your Goals

Bridging the Gap to Your Goals: Building a Span That Lasts

Master the Habit Cycle and Achieve Your Goals– features a short video on how to make smart choices happen automatically.

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Self-Righteousness in the media and in my social media feed seems to have become almost as prevalent as Covid-19, driving people even farther apart than the six feet needed for safe social distancing. So, while the scientists are searching for a medical cure to stop the pandemic, I thought I’d take a stab at addressing the symptoms of this other sickness.

My first breakthrough: like the stages of grief, self-righteousness seems to follow a familiar pattern. Here’s what I think the stages of self-righteousness are, and what we can do as leaders whenever we encounter someone exhibiting these symptoms.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: 7 Stages of Self-Righteousness: Symptoms and Treatments
• The Ransperger Pivot is a useful way to discuss a topic with someone that begins by looking for points of agreement before attempting to change minds.
• For more on Benjamin Franklin’s attempts to become more humble, check out How to be Humble

Quotable:

“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.” - Voltaire

“The weaker the argument, the quicker the shift to name-calling.” - Ken Downer

“If we all stopped talking with people we have argued with, it would be a lonely planet indeed. - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Leadership Tantrums – 15 Reasons to Keep Your Cool – on the harmful by-products of heated tempers and how to stay cool

The Best Revenge: What to Do When Someone Does Us Wrong

Rapid Deliberation: 7 Ways to Hit the Target While Under Stress

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How do we know if someone was a great leader? One key is to take a hard look at their final act of leadership before they let go of the reins. Too many would-be leaders see succession in a distorted light that invalidates any good work they may have done. If we want to be seen as “one of the good ones” here’s how to get the focus right.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: The Final Act of Leadership: What Leaders Get Wrong About Succession
• Read more thoughts about Jim Collin’s book Good to Great here, or check it out on Amazon.
• Collins found that three fourths of CEOs deliberately set their successors up for failure so that they themselves would look good.
• Here’s the original video of the dropped baton; see the last 20 seconds for the slow-motion close-up.

Quotable:

“Leaders who truly care about their organization and the people within it do not set them up to fail the moment they walk away.” - Ken Downer

“If an organization soon stumbles after the leader departs, that’s not a testament to his leadership ability, it’s an indictment of it.” - Ken Downer

“If we would be seen as great leaders, if we want our team to win, our final act of leadership is clear: don’t drop the baton.” - Ken Downer

"Great leaders prepare the organization to thrive even when they are no longer leading it." - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Who’s Your Second? Are We Really Leading, or Just in Charge?

Delegation, Part 2: What to Delegate?Tips on how to develop your teammates through intelligent delegation.

What is Your Leadership Legacy?

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Did you know that 1 + 1 + 1 does not always equal 3? You would think that the more people on a project, the greater the output. Sadly, that’s not always the case. A phenomenon called Social Loafing leads some team members to do the minimum possible. They drag down group productivity like a boat anchor. Today we’ll look at why social loafing happens, and six ways you can be sure to get the best effort from everyone.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Stop Social Loafing: 6 Ways to Get Everyone Working
• Here’s the original article about Max Ringleman’s findings.
• Social loafing is the tendency for people to exert less effort when they are part of a group than when they are by themselves.
• For how to harness social pressures to build a higher-performing group, check out Secrets of Social Facilitation: Putting the Audience to Work
• Reasons for social loafing can relate to group size, goal achievability, goal value, goal low-balling, skill differential within the group, and the “Sucker Effect.”

Quotable:

“The larger the group, the greater the tendency to slack off.” - Ken Downer

“Good leaders do their best to prevent a competition for ‘who’s best at doing the least.’” - Ken Downer

“Potential ‘loafers’ will be more likely to contribute if they believe they will be found out.” - Ken Downer

“Peers may be in the best position to assess who’s pulling their weight.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

SMART Goals: How to be SMART about Goal-Setting

They Do This in Church, Too? 9 Ways Getting Constructive Feedback is a Game-Changer

How to Get Kicked Out of Leadership School: The Spotlight Leader

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There’s a tool sitting on our leadership work bench that often goes neglected. Yet it has the power to increase our team’s efforts, raise their spirits, and improve performance. As a bonus, it takes very little time, is easy to use, costs almost nothing, and comes in unlimited supply. What is it, you may ask? It’s praise, and today we’ll talk about five ways you can give praise that motivates, inspires, and possibly even changes lives.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: In Praise of Praise: 5 Ways to Enhance the Power of Your Appreciation
• The longer we wait to praise, the less meaning it has
• Saying, “Good job” is not enough. Praise is more impactful if it is specific; when we can say specifically what was noteworthy, we increase the chance that the person will do it again.
• Praise that comes through the chain of command reinforces that chain and strengthens cultural values at the same time.

Quotable:

“Praise it has the power to increase our team’s efforts, raise their spirits, and improve performance. As a bonus, it takes very little time, is easy to use, costs almost nothing, and comes in unlimited supply.” - Ken Downer

“Putting praise in ink enhances its value and impact.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

How to Build Team Culture From the Ground Up

Positive Feedback – Catch them Doing Something Right

Crutch Phrases That Weaken Our Leadership

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In the days before they had horses and rifles, ancient Americans successfully hunted the enormous and dangerous American Bison in a surprising way. By taking advantage of its herd mentality, a few bold warriors were able to manipulate the actions of hundreds of buffalo. As social animals ourselves, we can learn a lot from their tactics to help make us better leaders today.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Herd Mentality: What We Can Learn About Leadership From Ancient Americans
• Find Robert Cialdini’s excellent Influence – the Psychology of Persuasion on Amazon
• Traits that make the American Bison vulnerable: Eyes on the sides of their heads, heads low to the ground, strong herd instinct

Quotable:

“In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct.” - Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.

“Social proof isn’t really proof at all.” - Ken Downer

“In the end, it’s not really leading if all we’re doing is imitating those around us so that others will imitate us.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Visionary Leadership: When Social Proof Fails

Restoring Faith in Humanity One Act at a Time

Leaders Go First: The Surprising Impact of Making the First Move

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You’ve probably seen the “rocks in a jar” presentation about time management. It’s great for visualizing the need to prioritize what’s important. The problem is that I think there was a lot they left out. Here are eleven things they didn’t mention about the concept that can make us even better at managing our time.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Rocks in a Jar: 11 Things They Didn’t Tell You
• Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on Amazon for more helpful insights on time management.
• Here’s a short video explaining the original “Rocks in a Jar” concept.

Quotable:

“People who know the value of time are always doing something valuable with their time. – Sunday Adelaja

“If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.”

“It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it is the grain of sand in your shoe.’” - Anon

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” - Allen Saunders

Related posts:

‘Set and Forget’ Leadership: How to Delegate So You Won’t Get Burned

Team Leadership: 4 Simple Steps to Getting Stuff Done

Leading Former Peers: 27 Tips, Tactics, and Techniques

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No, this is not another post about the seven leadership lessons we can learn from geese. Yes, it does come from watching geese, but it’s something that others have overlooked, and it has to do with leading through transition. And as usual, a simple demonstration by mother nature carries powerful lessons for us about how to lead in chaotic, unsettled times.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Leading Through Transition: Tips for Leaders in Times of Change
• According to The Cornell Lab, snow geese are possibly the noisiest of all water fowl. The audio clip of a flock of snow geese comes from SoundBible (public domain); for best effect, set volume to 10!
• Especially in times of transition, it is critical to get out from behind the desk and go to where the team is; for more on what to do when you get there, read Getting Down in the Trenches: Tips for Taking Over

Quotable:

“When things are unsettled, people look for clues about what to do; we have to place ourselves where they look, or they’ll get their cues from someone else.” - Ken Downer

“Follow me and do as I do.” - Standing Order of the Infantry Fire Team Leader

“Leaders focus on the ‘doing’ not on the ‘not doing.’” - Ken Downer

“If hundreds of snow geese can manage the complex transition to flight just by honking, squawking, and flapping around, think what we could do with words.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Leaders Go First: The Surprising Impact of Making the First Move

Seeking Discomfort: 7 Ways to Embrace Uncomfortable Feedback

Leading Former Peers: 27 Tips, Tactics, and Techniques

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These days as we move from one unforeseeable event to the next, it might seem that any effort to plan is a waste of time. Dwight Eisenhower would agree, at least in part, when he said, “Plans are worthless.” But here’s the rest of that great quote and what we can take from it to help us prepare for the next time the unimaginable happens.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Plans are Worthless: Why We Should Plan Anyway
• For more on the idea of “Red Teams” check out Rapid Deliberation: 7 Ways to Hit the Target While Under Stress
• Here’s the full text of Eisenhower’s Speech.

Quotable:

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

The primary reason for planning is to keep ourselves “steeped in the character of the problem that [we] may one day be called upon to solve.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Related posts:

Planning to Be Lucky: Are We Betting on the Wrong Thing?

Visualization Techniques: 5 Simple Ways We Can Influence the Future

The Brilliant Planning Trick Lewis and Clark Used that Nobody Noticed

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As a rule, we tend to look down on sheep, but we have a lot more in common with them than we might want to admit. In this post we’ll look at one would-be shepherd who learned the hard way that sheep are not the passive conformists we think they are, and we’ll build a list of nine ways to successfully lead sheep, no matter how many legs they happen to have.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: 9 Secrets to Leading Sheep – No Matter How Many Legs They Have
• Check out the excellent On Trails by Robert Moor on Amazon
• “Path Dependence” - When decisions presented to people are dependent on previous decisions or experiences made in the past

Quotable:

“Sheep, like people, are ungovernable when hungry.” - John Muir

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

“An anxious herder makes a lean flock.” - Shepherding axiom

Related posts:

Micromanagement: 7 Signs You’re a Micromanager and What to Do About It

Courage to Lead: Re-looking the Role of Courage in Leadership

Sharpen Your Thinking: 25 Ways to Hone Your Thinking Skills

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Like an airplane ascending through the clouds in the early stages of a flight, we can expect some rough air when we first step into a new leadership role. Our teammates are trying to see if we have what it takes to lead them well. Pass the test and we earn their trust. Fail it, and it’s going to be a long turbulent flight ahead. Here’s what those leadership tests might look like, and some thoughts on how best to respond.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Leadership Test: Will You Be Ready When the Challenge Comes?
• Check out “In the Heart of the Sea” by Nathaniel Philbrick on Amazon. Note – the whaling disaster this book describes served as the inspiration for Moby Dick
• Leading former peers may be one of the hardest leadership challenges there is; here’s a link to 27 Tips, Tactics, and Techniques to make it a little easier.
• Ignoring something uncomfortable can lead to disaster; read the post Leading With a Blind Eye: Why You Can’t Ignore the Thing You Didn’t Want to See for more about this leadership hazard.

Quotable:

“Leaders must learn to be uncomfortable.” - Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership

“There is no faster way to lose the trust of our teammates than trying to hold them accountable to standards that we ourselves ignore.” - Ken Downer

“If the passive aggressive person senses that she has gotten under your skin, the balance of power is already shifted in her favor.” – Signe Whitson

“If we fail to set the ethical tone for our teams, someone else will.” - Anon

Related posts:

Leading Your Friends: 9 Ways to Lead Your Former Peers

Mind the Gap: 9 Ways to Close the Trust Gap on Your Team

Cornerstone of Leadership: What’s Yours?

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The words we use as leaders make a difference, but to be honest, some of the phrases we’re using in our attempts to lead are actually making things harder for us. Here are three examples of these crutch phrases that we tend to rely on that don’t really give us the support we think they do. Do any of these sound familiar?

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Crutch Phrases That Weaken Our Leadership
• See the post Establishing Trust: Why the Details Matter for more on why it’s the little things that can be most important when it comes to trust.

Quotable:

“Should our teammates just assume we are being less than honest if we don’t start by saying, ‘trust me’?” - Ken Downer

“Bringing up the issue of trust at all signals that there may be some trust issue to consider.” - Ken Downer

“If we can’t say something respectfully as leaders, maybe we shouldn’t be saying it at all.” – Ken Downer

Related posts:

Leaders and Con Men: Should We Follow Their Example?

Mind the Gap: 9 Ways to Close the Trust Gap on Your Team

Cornerstone of Leadership: What’s Yours?

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Tomorrow he would lead his lead his army to retake Burma from the Japanese. Today he had a chance to share with his soldiers the leadership philosophy that would make that monumental task possible. He did it with a single short story. Here’s what he said, and how it can help you and your team accomplish the impossible, too.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Leadership Trust: The Secret to Achieving Impossible Things
• See the post Establishing Trust: Why the Details Matter for more on why it’s the little things that can be most important when it comes to trust.
• The moment we put privileges ahead of the duties is the moment we start to lose the respect and loyalty of our teammates.
• Story Source: Burma Star Memorial Fund

Quotable:

“Officers are there to lead. I tell you, therefore, as officers, that you will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor smoke, nor even sit down until you have personally seen that your men have done those things. If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the end of the world. And, if you do not, I will break you.” – Field Marshal Slim

Related posts:

Transformational Leadership: 5 Steps to a Brighter Future with Your Team

Mind the Gap: 9 Ways to Close the Trust Gap on Your Team

Cornerstone of Leadership: What’s Yours?

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Con Men work in the shadows and employ every trick in the book to get people to do what they want. As leaders, we’re trying to get people to do things, too. So, is there really much difference between leaders and con men? Is there anything we can learn from these evil-doers that we can put to use for the good?

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Leaders and Con Men
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini on Amazon
• Ways Con Men gain our trust: Titles, Clothing, and Trappings
• “Enclothed Cognition” – the idea that the clothes we wear can put us in a different psychological state.
• For eight ways to convey a sense of authority in virtual meetings, check out Non-Verbal Skills for Virtual Team Leaders

Quotable:

“Victims often raise a con artist’s fashion or style choices as a key part of how they formed sufficient trust to give away large sums of cash, keys to their apartments, and even love.” – Sarah Treleaven

“We know the guy on TV trying to sell us medicine is not really a doctor, yet advertisers keep hanging stethoscopes around actor’s necks because it works.” - Ken Downer

“There is a difference between leaders and con men. Our purpose is to help others, not ‘help ourselves.’” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Crutch Phrases that Weaken our Leadership

Leadership Trust: The Secret to Achieving Impossible Things

Transformational Leadership: 5 Steps to a Brighter Future with Your Team

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Burnout on the job is costing us millions of dollars annually, but the solutions leaders are putting into place to solve the problem are missing the point. Here’s what you need to know about burnout, and three effective strategies we as leaders can take to deal with it when it arises, and even prevent it from appearing in the first place.

Notes and Resources:
Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Bosses and Burnout * Beyond Burnout*on Amazon * Costs of burnout: + Nearly 25% of international employees experience burnout “very often” or “always” + An estimated one million workers are absent every day due to job stress + Costs to larger companies can be $3.5 million a year * Three signs of burnout: + Feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion + Increased mental distance from the job or feelings of cynicism + Reduced professional efficacy

Quotable:

Burnout is “chronic, sustained and long-term stress at work…when that feeling of drowning under work-related stress doesn’t subside.” – Suzi McAlpine

“When our teammates exhibit signs of chronic exhaustion, increased cynicism, withdrawal from work, or a decrease in efficacy, there could be a problem. If they manifest all three, it’s time to take action – that tire is about to blow.” - Ken Downer
“When we organize in ways that maximize our teammates’ say not only in what they do, but how they do it, we heighten their potential for motivation, and decrease the likelihood of costly burnout.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

Demotivation: 7 Ways You Might Be Killing Your Team’s Spirit
Courage to Lead: Re-looking the Role of Courage in Leadership
9 Secrets to Leading Sheep – No Matter How Many Legs They Have

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It takes courage to lead, but not in the way many people seem to think. Certainly, we need courage to step forward and show the way, but if we want our teammates to be motivated, engaged, and productive as they follow, there’s something else we have to do with that courage. Here are ten ways to lead with courage that may surprise you.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Courage to Lead
• Team Rituals: 35 Pretty Good Ideas to Strengthen Your Culture
• The After Action Review: A Leader’s Guide
• Positive Feedback – Catch them Doing Something Right

Quotable:

“If we hope to lead courageously, it’s the courage we pass on to others that counts.” – Ken Downer

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” - Theodore Roosevelt

“Water the plants you want to grow.” – Stephen Covey

“The truly courageous leader is the one who gives his teammates the confidence to be courageous themselves.” - Ken Downer

Related posts:

9 Secrets to Leading Sheep – No Matter How Many Legs They Have

Bosses and Burnout: Three Things Leaders Should Know

Quiet Professionals – Do You Have What It Takes?

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Big event coming up? Want to make sure it goes well? I just completed a big event of my own, and despite some bumps along the way, it turned out well in the end. Here are the seven things that helped me make it upright to the finish line, and how they can help you, too, whatever your big event may be.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Smiling at the Finish Line
• 11 Key Rehearsal Techniques to Keep Your Plan from Getting Torpedoed
• The After Action Review: A Leader’s Guide

Quotable:

“The first report is always wrong.” – U.S. Army axiom

“There is no substitute for personal reconnaissance.” – U.S. Army axiom

“If you’re going to make plans, plan to be surprised.” - Anon

“When leaders are physically exhausted, sleep-deprived, and mentally drained, they become more emotional, think less clearly, and the door to bad decisions swings wide.” – Ken Downer

Related posts:

Achieving Goals: Five Ways to Make Your Dreams a Reality

Preparing for Success: 8 Ways to Stack the Odds in Your Favor

Planning to Be Lucky: Are We Betting on the Wrong Thing?

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In this episode I'll share a story about how we nearly launched a search and rescue team into a trackless wilderness to recover a pilot who had crashed into the jungle. From that story, we can extract five key questions that leaders should have answers to before launching their own teams on any new mission.

Notes and Resources:

• Prefer to read? Here’s the full post: Lost in the Jungle
• Five keys to an inspiring vision statement
• How to turn that good idea into a SMART goal

Quotable:

“If your team can’t easily repeat the vision statement from memory, it isn’t a very good vision statement. – Ken Downer

“A sense of autonomy is empowering; having to play ‘mother may I?’ every step of the way is debilitating. Leaders empower.” – Ken Downer

Related posts:

Who’s in Your Canoe? 5 Things to Consider When Building a New Team Leading When Things Go Wrong: Playing Soccer on the IceCourage to Lead: Re-looking the Role of Courage in Leadership